Glass
by Texas Variety Katie-Bug
Summary: She would never call herself a dancer, but to Chat, she was a miracle on the ice. One-Shot. Adrienette, Mari-Chat. One sided reveal. One Year Anniversary fic. Written as a thank you for those of you who support everyone on this site. This is a thank you for those of you who come out, read, and let yourselves dissolve into the world other people create. Have a wonderful year. -Katie


She never called herself a dancer. She was known to be rather clumsy, tripping over her own feet, and constantly bumping into things. Anytime she tried to dance she would just awkwardly sway. If the movements were too complicated she found herself flustered and would step to the side, happy to let those with rhythm and proper hip movements to take the reigns and lead the way into the world of dancers. She didn't care for dancing. It was a fun activity to watch, and ballet was a beautiful art, but watching more modern dances dissolve into trashy, narcissistic, sexual movements didn't appeal to her. She liked the art of the subject.

Perhaps that's why Marinette put on those bright blue plastic ice skates for the first time. She put them on as a trial, going to the rink with her friends on one boring day in late spring where Nino thought it would be a good place to take Alya for a casual date with their friends. (He was hoping she'd would cling to his arm as they glided on the cold surface, but in reality it ended up being the other way around.) Nino had Adrien come and Alya forced Marinette to so the same, promising that she would have the opportunity to cling to Adrien's arm since she would be too busy wrapped up with Nino. It was an offer Marinette couldn't refuse. What no one expected was clumsy Marinette was to take to the ice like a fish takes to water. It wasn't like she was doing salchows or toe-loops, or even spinning or going backwards, but she was stable, and almost graceful. She was at home on the ice.

Those bright blue plastic rental skates quickly evolved into an eighty-five euro pair of recreational skates, which then evolved into a pair of heavily used professional skates, which turned into a pair of three-hundred and eighty euro skates that she received for Christmas. She was obsessed. Any time she wasn't at the rink, doing homework, designing, or saving Paris as Ladybug, she was on the ice.

It was a thirty minute trek to the rink every time she went, but those thirty minutes were spent daydreaming of routines, listening to music to choreograph, internally designing outfits, or thinking about how she would one day show Adrien how to skate on the ice with her. She never noticed a certain black cat watching from the corners of the rink, keeping an eye on her as she skated to only music she could hear through her earphones.

Adrien thought it was amazing the way Marinette took to the ice. The shy, stumbling girl came to life, as if a butterfly releasing itself from a chrysalis. It was a metamorphosis into a new person that he couldn't help but be enthralled by. He watched her in class and noticed she would check out more often than she used to. She would subconsciously slip her feet out of the black ballet flats she wore and place one foot on her knee, rubbing the balls in little circles. He watched as she scribbled designs for new outfits in the margins of the notes they took, not even needing to see the drawings to know that they were works of art. He had seen how hard she worked. On days she wasn't able to skate she would stay late at school and do pilates in the gym, which just happened to be in sight of his fencing. Her throwing a leg into the air, pointing her toe and stretching herself as tall as possible distracted him on more than one occasion, causing a few dumb losses, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

When he knew she was going to skate he went into an alley way and transformed into his alter-ego, raced across rooftops and beat her to the rink, hiding himself in the top corner, hiding in the shadows, like a black cat often did. He was a black cat after all. This was only natural to him. He would watch her as she skated, the time ranging anywhere from an hour to three hours. He would watch her monotonously repeat the same move over and over until she was finally satisfied with the result. He watched her, admittedly a bit too closely, as she went to the wall to stretch, throwing one leg over and pressing down on her hips, accentuating the curves of her body. There was no way she could ever realize how tantalizing she looked in those moments. He watched as she casually skated around the ice, placing one foot over the other in a way that seemed easy but he himself knew was infinitely harder than she made it look. He loved it when she did the same movement, but backwards, bringing one foot in front of the other and suddenly bringing the back foot back over to where it was parallel with the other. She looked graceful, going backwards in that stance, looking carefully over her shoulder before she carefully stuck her left foot out behind her and jumped lightly into the air, successfully landing a small jump before she moved on into a spin, dragging her right foot out and slowly bringing it in closer to her body, allowing the momentum to pick up as she went.

He wondered what kind of music she had playing in those earphones she wore. Were beautiful piano ballads playing? Or were upbeat indie songs taking over her eardrums? (There was no way he could have guessed she was listening to podcasts about serial killers as she went on perfecting moves, only moving onto songs when she wanted to perfect step sequences. She found the beats of the songs, no matter how fast or slow, would affect the way she tried to work on her movements.)

It went on like this for months. That spring day they first went changed into a sweltering summer, which changed to a rainy autumn, a snowy winter, and finally back into a breezy spring. She meticulously worked and he obsessively watched her dance. He realized in the pit of his stomach there was no way he was going to be able to continue on like this. There had to be a change. He couldn't continue to obsess over his classmate when His Lady would be waiting for him, her bright blue eyes twinkling in the starlight as they ran over the rooftops of Paris together. Why did those blue eye remind him of her though? Adrien knew his love for Ladybug wasn't fading, yet some bright feelings began to erupt for Marinette. His feelings for the girls were strong. Why didn't he feel like he was betraying either woman by having feelings for them both?

The answer to his question came on an unexpected night. It was dark when Marinette left the rink, and Adrien himself slipped out as his alter-ego. Noticing the time he realized he would have to meet up with Ladybug soon. He started to run off when he noticed a flash of light coming from his left. He almost missed it, the sight of His Lady, running across rooftops, with a pair a _very_ familiar ice skates flung over her shoulder. He laughed to himself. He should have known. Of course Ladybug and Marinette were one in the same. He should have realized Marinette wasn't a butterfly on the ice, but rather, a dancing ladybug. He would have quite a lot to say to His Lady whenever she arrived at their meeting spot.

* * *

 _One year ago today I created my third account on this site: Texas Variety Katie-Bug. I joined fanficiton in 2011 and have gone through two other accounts where I published works. This account is the one I'm most proud of. These works are the ones I will be able to look down and say "I'm glad I did that. I'm proud of these stories." My most popular story, written on my first account, I look back on in regret, which is one of the things that prompted me to move accounts in the first place. My second account served a very niche fandom, which was fun, but personal issues in life drove me away. It was hard to look at the persona I had created there and continue on like that. This account is the most honest and open I've ever been. Everyone I've seen, critical or not, had been so supportive and wonderful. I appreciate it and I can honestly say that I'm at a happier point in my life because of the community surrounded here. Thank you for that. Here's to this year, and many more to come._

 _-Katie_


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